The Journey of a Wizard: the Trials of a Ninja
by Dodgydisc
Summary: What would happen if Harry's parents had some secrets? How would it effect him if Sirius took him away before Hagrid could? What if he grew up in a world filled with Ninja before he learned to harness his magic? And how would the Wizarding world react to this new, confident Harry, and the friends he made on his Journey before Hogwarts?
1. Prologue

Hey. This is Dodgydisc, letting you know that this is the first proper fanfic I've made, as you probably can already tell. Though I take no credit for the characters, places or anything recognisable within this story, nor do I intend to make any profit off of the publishing of this story. I'm Rather happy with how the prologue to this story has turned out, a lot more so with my other attempts at writing, thus I figured I would share the progress of this story with you guys.

I've taken inspiration from a variety of places, Naruto and Harry Potter being the most obvious. More will come about in time, however I'll leave you guys to find them when and if you can. There will be an Author's not at the bottom of every chapter where I add in new inspiration telling you where it's from and disclaiming that I own nothing of it. However I'm also taking some inspiration from other fiction works on this site, as such I can't remember all of the places I'm getting inspiration from on this website and if you see something that you know is from another source on this site, which I haven't listed below, please send me a comment with the link so that I can check it out to see whether or not it is where I got the inspiration from and give them the correct credit they deserve. And if it isn't, I have another fan fiction that I could read and enjoy which is always a bonus. Anyway, without further delay, please enjoy the prologue for what I hope will be a long lasting series of chapters within this, and possibly other, books.

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Prologue

The clouds rolled over the sky, heavy and dark, obscuring the light from the stars as the streetlights and building lights flickered as a long figure rushed towards the smouldering wreckage that had once been his best friend's house. Sirius Black looked left and right, trying to spot any signs of movement within the quiet town, the silent howl of a wolf echoing throughout the night his only response to the thought running through his mind. _'Where are they?! What happened?!'_

He quickly ran through the garden gate, seeing a form upon the floor and feeling his heart sinking in his chest. That messy black hair. He didn't need to see the figure's face to tell that it was his brother in all but blood, James Potter.

Sirius shook his head. This was no time to be mourning his friend, he had to check on the others, Lily, James' wife, and their little one-year old child, Harry. He ran into the house, bounding up the stairs two at a time as he heard the cries of a baby coming from where he new Harry's nursery to be. He barged through the door, looking down and seeing what looked like a rotted husk of a human along with the body of his friend's wife. Their son was sitting in his crib, crying out and looking towards his mother.

Sirius walked over slowly, holding back his tears as he picked up the child gently. "There, there little one, you're safe now. No one is going to hurt you. I promise," he said softly as he held the child in his arms, knowing in his heart that two of the people closest to him in the world currently lay dead while the only connection to them he had left cried himself to sleep in his arms. "I promise you James. Lily. I will protect your son." He said, brushing a strand of the little boy's messy hair out of his face before turning away, heading out of the building.

Not turning back to look at the house, the memories that it would bring able to crush his resolve to protect the little one in his arms and rush towards the traitor who all but murdered their best friend and his wife.

Sirius failed to notice the small white glow that surrounded the female body of Lily Potter, an ethereal shape floating up in her shape before it changed, becoming little more than a wisp of smoke before being blown away by a strong gust of wind coming through the hole in the bedroom wall. Nor did he see the giant figure of a man walking into the house, discovering the scene he'd found mere moments ago, with the difference of the child being no where in site, and the body of Lily Potter no longer situated where it had been when he left the house.

An old man sat humming softly to himself as he sipped on a cup of tea, his long white beard gently flowing down over his robes as he stared out of the castle's window. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts castle, champion of the light, defeater of the last dark wizard and heralded as the greatest wizard alive, let out a small sigh. He closed his eyes, unwrapping a yellow sweet from its packaging and popping it into his mouth, closing his lips around it and sucking on the sweet, sour lemony flavour as he thought.

He'd known this night was coming, he'd helped the Potters and tried to help the Longbottoms hide. He'd thought that they might have been safe, but he knew that he was only fooling himself. Once a prophecy was made, especially one as important as this one, there was little that one could do to try and stop it when.

There was one bright side, if it could be called one, they finally knew who the boy that could defeat their latest enemy. The child, Harry Potter, was going to need a lot of attention if he was to grow up to become the person who they needed him to be. At least he could trust Hagrid to bring the baby back in one piece. He nodded with a small smile. No one would question him if he decided to put young Harry with his muggle relatives. Yes, they would help mould the young boy into exactly what the wizarding world needed.

The only problem, which wasn't really a problem, was the young Lord Black. He could hardly believe that the Potter's friend could betray them, though it would be a simple enough fix to put him behind bars when the time came. Then there would be no one to contest his decision to place Harry where he needed to be.

With a small nod Dumbledore stood, making his way towards the exit of his office. He figured it was time to meet with the masses as they celebrated what they considered the end of the darkest wizard since the one he had defeated. He shook his head softly. If only they knew the truth, but then, maybe it was for the best that they didn't know.

The horn of the boat sounded loud and clear through the fog that surrounded it. Sirius gently cradling Harry in his arms as he hushed and shushed the child, who was squirming at the loud sounds around him. "It's alright little one, we're almost there," he said softly as he looked up, noticing the large, foreboding archway in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. It had taken them six weeks to get this far, running from the Aurors who tried to arrest him under the false claims of kidnapping and the murder of his best friends.

He shouldn't have been surprised, Albus only knew half of the story, and if he'd known the full story he was sure that the misunderstanding would have been cleared up straight away. As it was he was determined to follow the last words of his friend and best friend's wife, the mother of the child in his arms currently. He was taking Harry to place which was safe for him, a place where he could learn what he needed.

He had thought that Lily was a little crazy when she'd first gotten him to promise her about this, how could she and James die so easily? Yet, now that he saw the archway, the final nail in the coffin had been hit, and he knew that this was really real. His best friends were dead, and he was all that young Harry had left. He wished he could have told Remus about this, but knowing the man like he did he hardly felt that it would have been fair on him.

He closed his eyes, silent tears running down his face as the boat sailed silently through the archway, the fog around them never dissipating until nearly three hours later when they neared land, except, this land was nothing like Sirius had seen in his life before, and as he stepped off of the gangplank and headed down onto the shore, he knew, that this place was only the tip of the iceberg for what lay in store for them over the next ten years. Still, he knew that as long as he had Harry, and that they were both together, that the child would be safe, and that nothing would stop them from living their lives to the fullest. The only thing he had to do now, was figure out where this 'Konoha' Lily had mentioned was.


	2. Chapter 1: Meeting the Hidden Fox

Right. First off, I'd like to thank you guys for all of your support. I didn't expect to have as many people who followed, let alone favourited this story, and for that I am grateful. To the two who left reviews, first off thank you again, and to answer your question Eflin69, you will have to just wait and find out. I'm not giving away any secrets just yet :P

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Chapter 1: Meeting the hidden Fox

Naruto Uzumaki, the demon brat of Konoha, age six, sat on the swing set outside of the academy that he was currently studying at. His legs dangled slightly off of the ground as he watched the other kids around him laughing and running towards their parents, something which he'd only experienced in his own dreams.

The parents smiled as they picked their children up, listening with a happy chuckle to the overly excited tails from the day's lessons and other activities, before one by one they noticed the blond boy on the swings. They quickly scowled, hurrying their children away from the school yard, the mutterings of something under their breath unheard by all but noticed by the target of their anger. He never understood why he was so hated. Sure, he pranked people and he made fun of them, but they were hating him even before he started to get some vague semblance of vengeance against their unwarranted wrath.

One kid stood out to him though, a short, black haired boy roughly his age that was standing with a man, laughing and playing around with him. Both of them were some of the few people who weren't openly hostile towards him, in fact, both of them even sent him the occasional smile when they saw him out and about on the town, instead of the usual cold glares that he normally got. He frowned, watching the pair before his blue eyes met a pair of emerald green ones, the kid he was watching having looked over in his direction. He felt his heart stop as the kid waved and smiled, running over towards him. He gulped audibly as he got off the swing set, taking a few steps back, prepared to run away from what was most likely another bully, turning to face away from the black-haired boy.

"Hiya!" came a friendly voice from behind him as Naruto turned to face the kid again, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Erh, eh. H-hey?" he said nervously, not quite sure how to react to someone being this friendly to him.

"My name is Harry! Potter Harry! Nice to meet you? And you are?!" The green eyes asked, looking down at him as he smiled, slightly taller than the young Uzumaki boy.

"Naruto." He said, glancing up at the man who was now slowly following the newly introduced Harry sending him a small smile. Naruto could hardly believe what was happening. He could count on one hand the number of people who actually smiled when they saw him, and he had never met this man before in his life.

"Nice to meet you Naruto. This is my uncle! Sirius!" Harry said as he pointed towards the man who was walking towards them. "He wanted to know if you wanted to join us for dinner! He says that he hasn't seen many people come to pick you up from class and wanted to make sure you were alright." The taller boy explained, holding his hand out to Naruto who merely blinked before nodding, grinning slightly as he took the offered hand to pull himself up.

"Well Harry?" Sirius asked as he raised an eyebrow towards the boy. "Are you going to introduce your new friend?" The man chuckled ruffling the already messy mop of black hair that rested on the older boy's head.

Harry pouted and huffed, looking up at Sirius as he ruffled his hair before gesturing towards Naruto. "Uncle Sirius! This is Naruto. He's." he said cocking his head to one side. "A little too bright maybe? Orange jumpsuit and blond hair? Are you trying to stand out like a sore thumb in the ninja village?" Harry teased as he poked Naruto's jumper.

Naruto pouted. "Hey! I like this colour!" he interjected as he pushed Harry a little, frowning up at the older boy before nodding towards Sirius. "Erm. Y-you sure you want to have me over for dinner?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah! Why wouldn't we?" Harry asked quickly as punched Naruto's shoulder lightly, causing the young blond to rub his arm and grumble something under his breath. "You seem like a cool guy, and uncle Sirius wants to know how you pull all the pranks that you've done!" he said with a big grin.

"You. You mean it?" Naruto asked, as he looked up at the man who Harry had called his uncle.

"You know, I was quite the prankster myself when I was just a little older than you are now." Sirius said ruffling Naruto's hair. "Come on. We'll go to our place and fix us up some dinner, shall we?" he asked, looking towards Harry who grinned at him. "I want pizza!" came the response of the slightly older boy, cheering as he started running towards the academy exit gate. "Come on Naruto! Race you!" he said, grinning at the blond boy. Naruto, grinning madly at finally being able to act his age for a change, ran towards the black-haired boy with a big, childish laugh, whooping at having made a new friend.

Sirius just chuckled softly at the two boys and began walking after them, his eyes shining with a small amount of mirth before he looked around, ducking into an alleyway when he was sure no one was looking. A moment later a large black dog joined the two boys in bounding around and running along the various streets, occasionally bumping into Harry causing the boy to laugh and ruffle his fur a bit before running to catch up to the hyper active blond boy in that took the opportunity to overtake him.

After roughly half an hour of running they stopped outside a small house near village's outer walls. The dog ran into the back garden as the two kids panted softly and grinned at each other walking towards the front, which opened for them, revealing a grinning, yet slightly worn out Sirius who nodded at them letting them in and heading into the kitchen to get started on making some food for their dinner.

Both boy's chuckled slightly as they walked into the living room, sitting down near a fire place that Harry started tending to, building a small fire for the both of them as the house was a little chilly due to its location in a far more shaded area of the city.

As they ate roughly half an hour later, Harry told Sirius of the various things that he had learned during the academy, drawing a confused look from Naruto who hadn't even heard most of it. Harry first thought that it was because he was in a higher year than Naruto, but then he started to get concerned when Naruto still got confused over some of the subjects that he'd learned two years prior.

"Naruto? You do go to the ninja academy, right?" Harry teased as he flicked the blond boy's forehead a small smirk on his lips as the other boy pouted.

"Yeah! Of course! I'm going to become Hokage one day! Then everyone will have to treat me with respect!" Naruto explained as he pounded his chest proudly, a small grin on his lips as he lightly glared at Naruto.

"How ya going to do that if you don't even understand the basics of being a Ninja doofus." Harry asked innocently causing the boy to blush embarrassedly.

"I know the basics! I just. The teachers always needed me to do tasks and that, sent me out of the class to get stuff while they were doing the lessons on some things. The only one who really taught me anything was Ikura-Sensei." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head.

"You mean to say that you skipped most of the lessons?" Harry asked as he raised an eyebrow at the boy.

"No! The teachers sent me away to do things while the lessons were on! Then I couldn't get back into the classrooms!" Naruto said, pointing his finger at Harry. "I bet it happens to lots of students."

"No. It really doesn't." Sirius butted in as he frowned, wondering what sort of teachers actively made students miss such important lessons when growing up in a world like this. "And if what you say is true, then we might want to have a word or two with this Mr. Ikura who actually does teach you, I have a bit of money so I could possibly hire him to tutor you and Harry to get you back up to scratch." Sirius said as he scratched his chin thoughtfully.

Naruto blinked at the man and looked as if he had grown a second head. "You, you would do that for me Mister?" The blond boy asked, tilting his head curiously, and looking simultaneously, overjoyed and as if he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, glancing over his shoulder as if expecting to see a hidden camera recording him for his reaction.

"Well. Harry here could possibly use a bit of a refresher course as well. So, I don't see a problem in him having a friend along for moral support. Extra lessons can be so boring if you have to suffer them alone." Sirius teased as he smirked down at the two boys.

Harry groaned. "You're evil uncle Sirius." He said, pouting up at the man who just chuckled and ruffled his hair.

"And don't you forget it pup." He said with a teasing grin, as he set his finished plate on the side counter next to the sink. "Naruto, where is it you stay? I'll take you home while Harry here gets his bath for the night." He said, ruffling his godson's hair once more as he stood up.

Harry pouted, looking up at Sirius with a small growl. "But it's still early! Can't Naruto and I play a bit more." He asked as he looked up at the older man, smiling innocently with large, wide eyes that glinted softly in the light of the kitchen.

"Nope." Sirius said as he rolled his eyes, pushing Harry towards the stairs. "Say goodbye to your new friend Harry, you can see him later, then go and get your bath, you've been training hard at school and you're going to get smelly later, I just know it." He teased, chuckling at the pout it got from his charge.

"Alright, alright." Harry huffed indigently before giving Naruto a hug. "Bye Naruto! Come see me again soon kay?! We can train together to become the strongest ever!" he said with a big grin causing the younger of them to chuckle, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Night Harry! Yeah! We'll be the greatest!" Naruto said as he grinned before following Sirius out of the door, leading the way back to his apartment before the older man too said good night, patting him on the shoulder before he headed back home.

That night Naruto was awoken by the sound of breaking glass in his apartment, the window at the front of his house being shattered, yet again, by a rock thrown up at it from the streets below. He sighed, trying to get back to sleep as he heard the shouts and drunken calls of the men down in the alleys, hoping that if he just stayed quiet they would leave him alone.


	3. Chapter 2: Parties of Youth

Well, here it is. Sorry for the delay. The second Chapter. They're slowly gaining length, and hopefully I'm slowly getting better as well. I know it might not be the most descriptive story out there, and I absolutely suck at dialogue, but it's an attempt at least. Anyway, without further ado, I'll let you get on with reading it.

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Chapter 2: Parties of Youth

The sound of metal clanking against metal rang out through the evening air of the training ground, two forms in the shadows throwing blunt kunai knives and shuriken blades at each other as they hopped from tree cover to tree cover. The two forms suddenly became three as one of them did a few hand motions, an image flickering into shape beside him that matched his looks almost perfectly.

The second shape, noticing the appearance of the third let out a small muttered curse, throwing a blade at each of the twin forms that were a fair while apart as he tried to get away into a deeper area of cover, knowing that he'd just given away his location trying to figure out which of his opponents was the fake. The kunai never met either target though, as they both jumped to the opposite side, heading towards where they'd seen the weapons emerge from. A flash of blond hair was all they saw as they got to where the knives were thrown, only to be caught by the ankles as they were hoisted into the air, upside down before the smirking boy who was confident he'd just won their little spar.

"So, Harry! Think I'm still not good enough to beat you yet?!" he asked, grinning at the two boys who were upside down. Both looked at each other and shrugged.

"Yeah. You could say that." Harry's voice sounded from behind Naruto, as the boy felt the cold steal of the knife pressed against the back of his neck as the two in front of him faded out of existence, no evidence that they had even been there at all left as the ropes hung slack as they had been since the trap was triggered.

"Damnit Harry!" Naruto said as he turned to face the older boy as a larger figure appeared near them in a small swirl of wind. "Why do you always have to use those damned clones of yours! It's not fair! You know I can never get that one down!"

"We're Ninja. We don't fight fair." Harry teased as he ruffled Naruto's hair as the blond-haired boy pouted, crossing his arms, causing both Harry and the third man to chuckle lightly at him.

"You're getting better Naruto." The older man said, his brown hair done up in a small pony tail that hung from the top of his head, a deep scar across his nose. "You managed to set a trap which would have snared Harry if the original was actually even around." He said as he too patted the young blond on his head. "Though you still need to work on your observation, you thought that there were only the two Harry's in front of you, but Harry managed to substitute himself when creating the clones to sneak around behind you. Still, it was a good match. You're both improving a lot."

"Thank you, Iruka-Sensei." The two boys said, bowing politely towards the man. They smiled, talking notes on what they had done right, what they had done wrong, how the other could have improved in various cases. One of the best ways Harry found of learning, was trying to imagine what it would be like to be the opponent facing him, looking back and seeing all the openings that he'd left, where to close them and how to exploit them if he saw another person doing the same things he'd done once.

This had been going on for the past four months now, Naruto and Harry meeting up after school with one of the school's teachers, on a long-term d-rank mission to help train up the two boys as they wanted to progress further in their studies. Sirius had organised the mission with both Iruka and the Hokage himself, the latter being a bit unexpected when Sirius had gone to the mission office to request the tutoring. Sirius had worked out the various details with the two men, which included physical exercise to build muscle, but not strain their young bodies too much, taijutsu training to help build on Naruto's lacklustre form that he had been taught by his previous teachers as well as help Harry get a better grasp of the basics.

Academy students weren't taught any jutsu beyond the clone, transformation, substitution and the rope escape. This was so that they could have a basic understanding of how to mould chakra, without over taxing their small coils. If a student wanted to attempt other jutsu, they could ask one of the teachers to help them with it, but the teachers weren't allowed to explicitly teach the students without them showing an active interest and prior ability that could indicate their ability to succeed on their chosen jutsu.

As it was, Harry and Naruto started learning the academy four once again, both having been taught them prior, though Naruto never quite getting the hang of the clone or rope escape techniques. The problem, Iruka discovered as they were trying to explain to Naruto, wasn't that he wasn't putting enough chakra into the clones as the teachers had suspected previously, but quite the opposite, Naruto was putting way too much chakra into the clones, causing them to overload and their forms to become unstable due to an excess of chakra filling the required space. This lead to Sirius, the Hokage and Iruka agreeing that both boys should learn more about chakra control as well, allowing Ikura to take them through basic chakra control exercises, starting with balancing a leaf on their foreheads, before slowly adding more. Harry could now balance a total of five leaves, one directly touching his forehead, while the other four floated at small, almost even intervals away from it. He couldn't maintain it for any length of time if he was forced to do something other than concentrate.

Naruto however, could only hold two, and both were touching his forehead. He could move around with them there, almost no problem, but when he tried to add a third, his concentration just started to slip. Harry and Sirius started to introduce Naruto to meditation to try and help him with that issue, Harry being trained in it since he was five due to a secret Sirius said Harry couldn't tell him yet. Naruto felt a bit left out, but understood that clans like the Blacks were entitled to their clan secrets, so he didn't feel too bad about it.

Now though, as Ikura set them a bit of homework to try and think of new traps to use for their next session on Monday evening, all Harry and Naruto could think about was the party that was happening later that night. A boy in Harry's year was throwing a Halloween party to celebrate his parents leaving him home alone for the night. They were both ninja, headed off for a small mission out of town to check up on signs of recent bandit activity. It was likely that they would be home in the morning so they didn't think it necessary to get the boy a baby sitter considering the late hour they were leaving and the early hours they'd be back.

Thus, it was roughly two hours later that both boys were hopping across the roof tops towards an apartment building on the other side of town from where Harry's house sat, Naruto basically living their as a second home since Sirius enjoyed the talk of pranks and what not, telling the boy, in infuriatingly less detail than was needed to understand, some of the pranks him and his friends had pulled in his school days.

Harry grinned as he knocked on the door of his classmate's house, the boy opening the door slowly to try and hide the sounds of other children in the house behind him. "Harry!" the boy exclaimed, grinning broadly. "You came?! Come on in, we're just about to start twister! And Simon said that he might teach us how to play this weird game from the other side of the barrier called dragons and something, or." He trailed off, his eye's falling on Naruto. "What is _he_ doing here? My parents warned me about him, he's trouble."

"No, he's not." Harry said rolling his eyes, "He's just misunderstood, the adults don't give him a chance because he's an orphan or something, and they turn everyone away from him, but he's really nice once you get to know him!" Harry said excitedly.

"But. But. He's the village idiot! He, he makes all those annoying pranks and steals stuff!" the boy retorted, staring at Naruto, then looking at Harry, somewhat confused. "How, how couldn't he be trouble?!"

"I never stole anything!" Naruto said as he heard the boy accusing him. "What do you mean I steal stuff?! I've never stolen anything in my life!"

"See! Naruto's not that bad. I bet your parents just told you that stuff to scare you away from him. He's cool, honest!" Harry said as he put a hand on Naruto's shoulder to try and calm him down.

"Alright. But if anything goes missing I'm blaming you!" the boy said as he glared lightly at Harry before stepping aside with a small grin, letting the two boys in.

Naruto huffed, and blinked, before following Harry into the house. There wasn't a lot of people there, mostly just the young boys and girls from Harry's year in the academy, along with a few older people, what looked like last year's genin teams

The party went on for the next few hours, Harry introducing Naruto to his friends, and the number of games they were playing, pin the tail on the donkey, twister, truth or dare, and Dungeons and Dragons, the game Simon, a previous year's graduate, had brought back from the other side of the barrier.

At roughly ten past ten, Harry and Naruto left, the party dying down as the younger students headed back to their own homes earlier. Harry grinned at Naruto, the younger boy clearly still having the time of his life as they walked onwards, Harry having arranged with Sirius for the blond boy to spend the night at theirs after the party had finished.

The party had gone well in Harry's books, at first there were a few glares and muttered words, but as the night progressed and people managed to see Naruto for who he truly was, and not what their parents told them, they warmed up. It wasn't as if Naruto had made a tone of new friends at the party, but that would take time, now though, there were at least a few people who knew the real Naruto apart from Harry and Sirius.

As they rounded a corner headed along a short cut towards Harry's house, they were stopped by a figure in anbu uniform. "You two are out pretty late?" Came a male voice from behind a white mask, colourful markings in a pattern that sort of resembled an owl's beak. "You should hurry home, who knows what sort of trouble you could get into being out and about at this hour." The man said, reaching into his flack-jacket.

"Yeah. We were, uh, just, headed home Sir. We, were, taking a shortcut." Harry said, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder to stop him from walking forwards. "We're nearly at my house, we'll, just, continue on then?" He said, nervously.

"If you're not too far away, I probably should escort you home, make sure nothing happens to our future protectors." The anbu said, pulling out two small bottles of water. "You two look thirsty. Here." He said as he held them out.

Naruto and Harry took them, nodding and saying thanks as they headed towards the other end of the alleyway, slowly sipping the drink as their Anbu guard followed them. They soon relaxed a little, happily chatting about the party as they drank their water, actually pretty thirsty from the walking they'd done to get this far home.

As they rounded the corner and saw Harry's house at the end of the street their movements became sluggish, and their eyelids heavier. They smiled happily at the thought of sleeping in a comfy bed, their steps slowing down until finally they were asleep not five paces away from the exit of the alleyway.


End file.
